Apparatus for delivering welded wire fabric



' July 21, 1953 w. s. SOUTHWICK 2,646,277

APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING WELDED WIRE FABRIC 2 Sheets-She et 1 Filed June 14, 1949 \JI MM. S. SduT-llM/ICK A. fizz/211M July 21, 1953 w. s. SOUTHWICK- 2,646,277

APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING WELDED WIRE FABRIC" Filed June 14, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 -a1lelwith the tubes. stay wires through the machine while the wires Patented July 21, 1953 APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING WELDED WIRE FABRIC r William S. Southwick, East Lynn, Mass, assignor to Thomson Electric vWelderCompany, Lynn,

Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application June 14, 1949, SerialNo; 98,982

This invention relates to a continuous wire fabric welder and in particular to thecombination of means andamethod to crimp the strand wires and deliver the welded fabric from the welder, the latter having been already described and claimed in my application, Serial No. 7008,

filed February '7, 1948, issued November 8, 1949, as Patent No.2,487,392, of which this-is a continuation-impart.

The principal object of this invention is to automatically control the tension in the strand wires of .the welded fabric so that they may be properly crimped in spaced relationship to the stay wires. I

Dther objects and features of this invention will appear from the following descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

Fig. 1 is a bottom plan view of the crimping means;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of .the crimping means taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1; I

Fig. 3' is a side view of the delivery means.

As has been substantially stated in my Patent No. 2,487,392, and described in detail therein, the

strand wires A, after having been straightened, are delivered'to tubes in which they are held from bending. A plurality, more than two, or set of stay wires B are fed simultaneously in the machine across and above thetubes ,while the off into lengths slightly greater than the width'of the fabric. Each stay 'wire is-fedinto achannel with an open bottom in a cross girt in which it is held by a gate. After the wires are fed in,the gates are withdrawn and each stay wire is'cut and pushed down into a V-shaped opening, one

2 Claims. (cran -2.3)

the strand wires and the chains continue to ad Vance, each stay Wire, before it comes to the weldingposition, is forced back by spring fingers against a'transverse aligned row of projections on the chains to position the stay wires accurately on the strand wires at intervals corresponding to-the length of the meshof the fabric. The advance of the stand wires between disc electrodes rotates the electrodes which are free to rotate. Asa stay wire' is carried into the nip of the electrodes, a welding current is put on to forni the weld asthe upper electrode is pressed down with welding pressure against the lower electrode. The welding current is out ofi after one or more cycles. The welded fabric is advanced through the machine, and the ends of the stay wires projecting beyond the outside strand wires are trimmed ofi. The fabric may be split and in such case the end of the stays are also trimmed.

After the'ends of the stay wires have been trimmed, the fabric passes under roller M, Fig. 3, which contains the crimping means of this in: vention, described in detail below.

With reference to Figs. 1 and 2, M4 and M5 represent cam wheels bolted to and supported by brackets, not shown,.secured to theframe of the machine. The wheel M4 has a throw M5 and the wheel M5-has an indentation MTCOmplementary to the throw M6.

Rigidly mounted upon shaft M8,'between the wheels- -IvI l and'-M5 is arranged the roller M.

The peripheryl/ii-l ofthe roller M is either cast side of which is forced to moveby the wires in order to allow 'th'e'wire to pass down onto the tubes and between the transverse rows of projectionson chains, which travel between and par- The projections carry the of the welded fabric and the stay wires are ador machined to receive the barsMi 2 held in place by bar'sMlSYsecured; by screws M54 to the pe- J riphery MI I. These bars M12 extend from the cam wheel M4 to the cam wheel M5. The number of bars M13 corresponds to the number of strand wires. The edge of each of these bars toward the cam wheel M4 is corrugated or shaped as at Mi 5- to correspondto the form in which the crimp in the strand wire is tobe made. This edge Ml5 serves as a stationary crimping jaw. Upon the top of each bar Mi? by screws MIG is secured a second crimping bar M1! the edge of which opposite the edges Mid of the bars M53 are corrugated as at MIS as a complement of the'corrugations The bars Mil correspond in number to the bars M iii and, when forced together with a strandwire between them, form vanced by the movement of the chains until they the axes of which are'perpendicular and radial to the axis of the shaft M8. The wheels M!!! and M26, as the roller is rotated, travel respectively around the cam wheels M4 and M5. The throw M6 and the indentation M! are located at the bottom of their'respective cam wheels. The throw M6 causes each wheel M!!! to rise on the surface of the cam wheel M4 and thereby throws the bar M12 over to the right, Fig. 1. Simultaneously each wheel M20 is caused to move into the indentation Ml. As each wheel M20 rises out of said indentation, each bar i2 is caused to move to the left, Fig. 1, and each wheel M19 travels off and down from the-throw M6. By the above described motion of each bar MIZ, each bar M11 is forced into a position adjacent to, each. sta tionary bar M13 thereby crimping the strand wire in the jaws formed by the edges MIS. and Ml8 as the fabric is carried under the roller M; and then is released from each bar MB to open said jaws to allow the fabric to pass beyond the roller M.

The welded fabric then passes over roll Ml and under roll M3, Fig. 3, to the nip ofa pair of pinch rolls PI and P2. PI is fast on an axle journalled in brackets on the frame. P2 is mounted in a bearing which is urged by a spring to press the roll P2 against the roll PI. The axle to which the roll PI is fast has a driven pulley P3 driven by a driving belt P4 passing around a driving pulley P5 fast on the driving shaft S50 mounted on the frame. As shown in Fig. 3, the belt ex tends rearwardly from the pinch rolls toward the fabric supply.

An idler pulley P6 controls the tension of the belt P4, the pulley normally resting upon and pressing against the upper reach of the belt. The pulley P6 is mounted on a stud on an arm P7 pivoted to a bracket on the frame. At the outer end of the arm is pivoted a link P8 pivoted at its lower end to a vertically displaceable shaft M2 mounted in the ends of arms Pl fast to shaft PII mounted in brackets on each side of the frame. The welded fabric passes under guide roll M3, on the shaft M2. When the feed of the pinch rolls is faster than the feed of the fabric, the latter lifts the guide roll M3 and the idler pulley P6 to relax the tension in the belt which then slips on either the pulley P3 or F or on both.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for delivering and controlling the tension and speed of welded wire fabric normally pressing against a reach of said belt to tension said belt about said pulleys, a supporting arm pivoted on said support structure, a shaft and guide roll mounted on said supporting arm, said guide roll normally pressing against said fabric betweenv said supply and, said, pinch rolls and movable toward and away from said fabric, and a link pivotally connected at each end to each of said arms whereby said guide roll moves said idler pulley in a direction away from said reach of said belt to relax the tension in said belt whenever the feeding speed of the fabric in contact with the guide roll is slower than its delivery speed from saidpinch rolls.

2., An apparatus for delivering and controlling the tension and speed of welded wire fabric drawn from a supply thereof comprising a pair of pinch rolls between which said fabric is delivered and by means of which said fabric is drawn from said supply, a support structure, an axle for one of said rolls journalled in said support structure, a driven pulley mounted on said axle, a driving shaft and pulley also mounted on said support structure, a driving belt passing around said pulleys, said belt extending rearwardly from said pinch rolls and toward said fabric supply, an arm pivoted on said support structure, an idler pulley mounted on said arm and resting on a portion of said belt extending between said pulleys, a pair of pivoted supporting arms extending from said support structure, avertically displaceable shaft and guide roll carried by said supporting arms, said guide roll resting on said fabric between said supply and said pinch rolls, and a link pivotally connected at one end to said firstnamed arm and at the other end to said guide roll shaft, whereby said guide roll lifts the idler pulley to relax the tension in the driving belt whenever the feeding speed of the fabric in contact with the guide roll is slower than its delivery speed from said pinch rolls.

WILLIAM S. SOUTHWICK.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Re. 12,656 Cooker May 28, 190.7

' of 837,797 755,006 I-Ioxie Mar. 22, 1904 963,616, Mirfield July 5, 1910 1,661,156 Armstrong Mar. 6, 1928 1,854,604, Steinmann Apr. 19, 1932 1,896,802 Richter Feb. 7, 1933 1,904,870v LaYcQck Apr. 18, 1933 2,082,388. Getz June 1, 1937 2,171,741 Cohn Sept. 5, 1939 2,245,584 Harter June 17, 1941 2,487,392 Southwick Nov. 8, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country 7 Date 426,833 France May 13, 1911 

